64 authors and artists contributed to Incandescent Mind: Issue Two, Winter 2017. Read through their bios and learn more about them.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda is an LA Poet who is a recent graduate of MFA program at Antioch University in Los Angeles where he lives with his wife and their cat Woody Gold. His poetry has been featured in The Yellow Chair Review, Thick With Conviction, Silver Birch Press and one of his poems was named the winner of Subterranean Blue Poetry’s 2016 “The Children of Orpheus” Anthology Contest. You can connect with Adrian on his website: adrianernestocepeda.com

Alex Diffin is a Long Beach artist. She focuses on pop contemporary abstract portraiture; running with the themes of bright chaotic color accented with a detailed emotive portrait. Alex gets her inspiration from the wild abstractness of life, and how stunning it can be despite its unpredictability. Life is messy, life is beautiful. Alexdiffin.com IG: alex_diffin Facebook: alexandradiffin

Alexis Rhone Fancher is the author of How I Lost My Virginity To Michael Cohen and

other heart stab poems, (2014), State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, (2015), and Enter Here, (March, 2017). She is published in Best American Poetry, 2016, Rattle, Slipstream, Wide Awake: Poets of Los Angeles, Hobart, Cleaver, and elsewhere. Her photos are published worldwide, including a spread in River Styx, and the covers of Witness, Heyday, and the Chiron Review. Since 2013 Alexis has been nominated for 11 Pushcart Prizes and 4 Best of the Net awards. She is Poetry Editor of Cultural Weekly and the monthly photo essay, “The Poet’s Eye.” www.alexisrhonefancher.com

Alise Brillault is a spoken word poet, writer, and student finally finishing up her degree in Integrated Social Sciences. She is from Long Beach, California but is currently living in Barcelona, Spain. She also likes to host open mic nights and has done so both in Long Beach and in Barcelona. Her influences mostly include hip-hop music as well as moments from her personal life. When she’s not writing, performing, or studying, Alise loves practicing her Spanish, doing yoga, dancing, and traveling.

Amanda Mathews is a painter and artist exploring new ideas in Montclair, New Jersey. She strives to produce work that challenges the traditional media standards of beauty. Her work has been featured on the cover of Mahogany L. Browne’s book Swag and at MH Gallery in Chelsea. She once took an awfully long walk through the Chelsea galleries with Jerry Saltz. She prefers pie over cake and tries to start each morning with a hearty “Hell yes”. You can find more of her work at Facebook.com/AmandaMathewsArtist and society6.com/AmandaMathews

Betsy Mars is a Connecticut-born, mostly Southern California raised, formerly lapsed poet. She has returned to the fold after too long of an absence. She is a mother, educator, and animal lover with a severe case of travel fever. Having spent part of her childhood abroad, she has always had an interest in language and its nuances. With a social worker mother and psychologist grandmother, it was inevitable that she would be an overthinker and prone to bouts of depression. Her work has been published by Silver Birch Press, the California Quarterly, as well as in several anthologies.

Boris Salvador Ingles was born and raised in Los Angeles, in the small community of Boyle Heights. He combines poetry and photography, as means for visual and emotional expression. A mixture of humor, rawness, vulnerability and a sense for dark street realism. His poems have appeared in Spectrum, Spectrum 2, Cadence Collective: Year Two Anthology, Then & Now: Conversations with Old Friends and most recently, The Coiled Serpent anthology.

Brandon Dumais is a Los Angeles-born writer and zine-maker. He received his BA in creative writing and English literature from CSULB in 2013 and is the co-editor of Remedial Art Class. His work has been published by Sadie Girl Press, Bank Heavy Press, Spectrum, Sap, and The Men’s Heartbreak Anthology.

Chestina Craig, an intersectional feminist, poet, and scientist in training, lives in Long Beach, CA with her cat. Currently a student at CSULB studying Marine Biology, she spends her free time in the ocean, taking photos, and petting sharks. Her other talents include eating whole pizzas and falling in love with 7pm tangerine sunlight. She hopes to one day only be required to wear gauzy long dresses and swim in the ocean.

Daniel McGinn‘s poems have appeared numerous anthologies and publications. Daniel has an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. He and his wife, poet Lori McGinn, are natives of Whittier, California.

Donald Illich has published poetry in journals such as The Iowa Review, Sixth Finch, Nimrod, and Columbia (Online). He was a finalist for the Washington Writers Publishing House poetry book contest. He has been named a nominee for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net awards. He lives in Maryland.

Donna Hilbert’s latest book is The Congress of Luminous Bodies, from Aortic Books. The Green Season, World Parade Books, a collection of poetry and prose, is available in an expanded second edition. The work about the death of her husband appears in Transforming Matter, and in Traveler in Paradise: New and Selected Poems, from PEARL Editions. Her work is widely anthologized, including Boomer Girls, A New Geography of Poets, Solace in So Many Words, most recently in The Widows’ Handbook, Kent State University Press and The Doll Collection, Terrapin Books. She lives in Long Beach, California. More at www.donnahilbert.com

Dr. Donny Jackson is a clinical psychologist, documentary television producer, and poet. He lives in Los Angeles, California. scriptdoctord@aol.com donnyjacksonpoetry.tumblr.com

E. Amato is a digital nomad, published poet, award-winning screenwriter, and established performer, with three poetry collections released by Zesty Pubs: Swimming Through Amber, 5, & Will Travel. Recently featured in KCET’s LA Letters as one of five emerging female writers, her poetry is included in Tia Chucha Press’ The Coiled Serpent: Poets Arising from the Cultural Quakes & Shifts of Los Angeles, and she was commissioned to create text for City Speaks III, an audio installation for the city of Pasadena. She edits the Zestyverse, and has been a contributor to The Body Is Not an Apology. http://www.eamato.com

Elder Zamora is a writer residing in Southern California. He holds a degree in English and is a curator of the San Gabriel Valley Literary Festival. His work has been published in various journals including Left Hook, Barnstorm, Soundings Review, Libertad and others.

Ellen Stone teaches at Community High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her poems have appeared recently in Passages North,The Collagist, The Citron Review and Fifth Wednesday. Ellen’s poetry has recently been nominated for a Pushcart prize and Best of the Net. Her poetry collection, The Solid Living World, won the 2013 Michigan Writers Cooperative Press chapbook contest.

Eric Morago is the author of What We Ache For (Moon Tide Press, 2010) and Feasting on Sky (Paper Plane Pilots, 2016), and is an associate editor for the online literary journal, FreezeRay Poetry. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Long Beach, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two dogs.

Esmeralda Villalobos is an artist from Guadalajara, Mexico, currently living in Southern California. As far as her painting style is concerned, she feels that experimenting with different forms—surrealism, abstract expressionism, realism—is one of the greatest freedoms an artist has. She has an art book called Artwork by Esmeralda Villalobos available through Sadie Girl Press.

Faith Gobeli is a sporadic writer of poetry and a celebrator of all things creative. In addition to poetry, she has dabbled in many mediums of writing, including screenplays, novels, short stories, and, most recently, a web series. Some of her favorite poets are Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke, Stephen Crane, and Sharon Olds.

Fernando Gallegos is a Long Beach artist born and raised. He is heavily inspired by the human form and always searching to evoke the feeling of movement and emotion. He loves the power of the brain, to take a simple stroke of color on paper and piece it together to an image with depth and feeling. He has illustrated many projects for Sadie Girl Press. Find more info and keep updated at: facebook\fernando.gallegos.lbc and instagram\@fgraphix.

George Hammons is currently a student at California State University San Bernardino, where he has had poems published in, the CSUSB publication, The Pacific Review. George has also had poems published online at Cadence Collective and will have several poems published in the upcoming volume of American Mustard.

HERFJERF is a newly sprouted SoCal artist whose conquest is to open portals in the minds of the modern human. HERFJERF has recently completed his first collection called Cave Paintings, which premiered at Stan Lee’s Comikaze (2015). HERFJERF is currently developing a collection of clay figurines called The Creatures of Bad Thoughts, as well as another group of paintings that explores the regions of the human body through the subtle body. Thank you.

Jackie Joice is a writer and photographer based in Long Beach and is author of the poetry and prose collection entitled Green Grapes Black Hands. She is currently working on a new collection of poems entitled “Touched.”

Jeffrey Alfier’s collection of Southwest poems, Idyll for a Vanishing River, won the 2014 Kithara Book Prize. His latest chapbooks are Bleak Music — a photograph and poetry collaboration with Larry D. Thomas, Southbound Express to Bay Head: New Jersey Poems and The Red Stag at Carrbridge: Scotland Poems. Anthem for Pacific Avenue, a collection of California poems, is due out in early 2017. Recent credits include Cold Mountain Review, Southern Poetry Review and Hotel Amerika. In 2008, he founded Blue Horse Press and San Pedro River Review.

Nominated for a Pushcart Prize way too long ago, Jeri Thompson keeps busy playing or napping with two cats who always seem ready for inspiration. You can find her work in Chiron Review, Red Light Lit, and Yellow Chair Review. Soon in Clockwise Cat (Jan. 2017) issue.

Karina Lutz is a writer, editor, teacher, and lifelong activist. In 2013, she received honorable mention from Homebound Publications Poetry Prize. Her poetry and links can be found at karinalutz.wordpress.com.

Keayva Mitchell is a twenty-four year old poet currently living in Long Beach, California. Some of her favorite poets include Terrence Hayes, Cristin O’Keefe-Aptowicz, and Rachel McKibbens. You can find her work in Cadence Collective: Year Two Anthology, Like a Girl: Perspectives on Feminine Identity, and Wherewithal Lit. She thinks you’re cool.

Kelsey Bryan-Zwick dreams big (writes and draws) in Long Beach, California. She is a graduate of UCSC, with a B.A. in Literature/Creative Writing-Poetry, and a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her art has featured on Cadence Collective, and is published in Like a Girl: Perspectives on Feminine Identity and Then & Now: Conversations with Old Friends. Kelsey’s poetry can be found in East Jasmine Review, Storm Cycle 2015: The Best of Kind of a Hurricane Press, Lummox 5, Short Poems Ain’t Got Nobody to Love, and in her chapbook, Watermarked (Sadie Girl Press), which intermixes both poetry and artwork in bold tones.

Kevin Ridgeway is from South Whittier, California. His work has been published widely in the small press; recent poems can be found in the pages of Chiron Review, Big Hammer, Nerve Cowboy, Cultural Weekly, San Pedro River Review and Spillway, among many others. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, and is the author of six chapbooks of poetry, including On the Burning Shore (Arroyo Seco Press) and Contents Under Pressure (Crisis Chronicles Press).

Kim Sharp is a writer, editor, and educator from Seattle. Her writing has been featured in several publications including the first issue of Incandescent Mind, the Carolina Quarterly and Clamor. Kim holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Oregon State University. Learn more about Kim and her work at www.travelswithqueeerness.com

Larry Duncan currently lives in Redondo Beach, CA. His poetry has appeared in Juked, The Mas Tequila Review, Emerge Literary Journal and the Free State Review. He is the author of two chapbooks, Crossroads of Stars and White Lightning and Drunk on Ophelia. To learn more about Larry and his writing, visit at larrydunc.wix.com/larry-duncan.

Lauri Langston has been a closet writer since she was twelve, sharing for the last nine years, primarily via spoken word at open mic events. She has two chapbooks, Reflections and Ready for the Storm and is currently working on a third. She can be found on Facebook and WordPress.com.

LeAnne Hunt lives with her whirlwind daughter and a hyper cat. She is a regular at the Ugly Mug reading in Orange and at the Poetry Lab workshop in Long Beach. She has poems published in LUMMOX Three, Gutters & Alleyways: Perspectives on Poverty and Struggle and Cadence Collective.

Linda Singer is a local poet and actress. She performs regularly with Stop Senior Scams and has featured at several So Cal poetry venues including Last Sunday and Poetry Matters. She had two plays produced in Dallas and sold a script to the TV series, Evening Shade. Linda has been published in a variety of poetry journals including Lummox, Directions, Spring Harvest and The Moment. She is currently working on a book of poetry about Death and Dying which she hopes will bring solace to those who might need it.

Lynn Azali aims to express her learning of mixing human figure, layers, composition and color through Paint Illustration. Born and raised in San Fernando Valley, California, Lynn studied Architecture at California Polytechnic University, in San Luis Obispo (2000-2005) and Scandinavian Design at Denmark International Study, in Copenhagen (2003-2004). She currently resides in Long Beach, California, and works fulltime as an Architectural Designer. Lynn’s showing experience includes: galleries, retail boutiques, cafes and night life events. Please feel free to contact or share thoughts via email at lynnazali@yahoo.com or find her on Facebook and Instagram.

Lynne Viti is a senior lecturer in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. She received her B.A. cum laude in English Literature from Barnard College, and her Ph.D. and J.D. from Boston College, where she was a university fellow in English. She has published poetry and fiction in both online and print journals, most recently, Amuse-Bouche, The Paterson Review, The Little Patuxent Review, Drunk Monkeys, Cultured Vultures, Irish Literary Review, A New Ulster, Mountain Gazette, and Right Hand Pointing. She won an Honorable Mention in the 2015 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest, and the summer 2015 poetry contest at The Song Is.

Mariano Zaro is the author of four bilingual books of poetry: Where From/Desde Donde, Poems of Erosion/Poemas de la erosión, The House of Mae Rim/La casa de Mae Rim and Tres letras/Three Letters. His poems have been included in the anthologies Monster Verse (Penguin Random House), Wide Awake (Beyond Baroque), The Coiled Serpent (Tía Chucha Press) and in several magazines in Spain, Mexico and the United States. He conducts a series of video interviews with prominent California poets as part of the literary project Poetry.LA (www.Poetry.LA) Mariano Zaro is a Spanish professor at Rio Hondo College. More information at www.marianozaro.com

Mark Smith-Soto has authored three prize-winning chapbooks and three full-length poetry collections: Our Lives Are Rivers (University Press of Florida, 2003), Any Second Now (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2006) and Time Pieces (Main Street Rag Publishing Co., 2015). His work has appeared in Antioch Review, Kenyon Review, Literary Review, Nimrod, Rattle, The Sun and many other publications. Nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize, and he recognized in 2006 with an NEA Fellowship in Creative Writing. His Fever Season: Selected Poetry of Ana Istarú (2010) and his lyrical memoir Berkeley Prelude (2013) were both published by Unicorn Press.

Michele Rene is a local Long Beach painter and musician. One of four daughters, her parents always encouraged her artistic endeavors. She is self-taught and has shown at numerous galleries in Orange County and Long Beach. Recently, Michele has also donated art work to local charity auctions Comprehensive Childhood Development and Heels for Hearts at Long Beach Memorial. She is active in the community as Secretary to the East Village Association and sings in parlor jazz trio The Funny Valentines. http://www.michelerene.com

Born and raised in NY, Michele Vavonese has been traveling, making, selling and teaching art for over 20 years. Michele Vavonese Studio opened its doors in 2006. Here original works made revolve around everything from politics to struggles of the internal psyche to the plights of agribusiness. It reflects the human condition and the culture we live in.

Since the opening of his 2009 Art Unexpected exhibition, Mick Victor‘s portrait photography, the continuing Art Unexpected Series and his recent mixed media work have gained a commercial and private following not only in Southern California but in cities as far away as London where a one of his portrait works represents the current “Song of Luthien” performance tour for the London Symphony Orchestra. Exhibited and sold in the US, Canada and Western Europe, five of his master portraits featured at the Los Angeles Museum of Latin American Art are now a part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Nancy Correro holds an MFA from McNeese State University, and is pursuing a PhD at Georgia State University. She resides near the Chattahoochee Watershed in Roswell, GA and finds inspiration while hiking the Big Creek trails. She is the recipient of the Joy Scantlebury Poetry Award, and her work has appeared or is forthcoming in such publications as I-70 Review, Rougarou, Bird’s Thumb, and other journals.

Nancy Lynée Woo is a 2015 PEN Center USA Emerging Voices Fellow, the founding editor of Lucid Moose Lit, a social justice-focused press, and a Pushcart-nominated poet. She has published two chapbooks of poetry, Bearing the Juice of It All (Finishing Line Press, 2016) and Rampant (Sadie Girl Press, 2014), with poems in numerous journals. Often caught cavorting around Long Beach, CA, this poet can also be found at nancylyneewoo.com.

Natalie Morales uses her poetry as an outlet for the anxiety and depression she’s faced since childhood. Her work has been published in Conceit Magazine, Chiron Review, and Cornell University’s Rainy Day literary magazine, among many others. She is currently compiling a visual chapbook of found poetry.

Raquel Reyes-Lopez currently resides in Oceanside, CA with her husband. Her poetry can be found in Rattle, Cadence Collective: Long Beach Poets, Long Beach Live, and various other magazines. Her debut chapbook Born to Electrify was published with Sadie Girl Press and is available to purchase through their website. Keep in touch with her at contactraquel.wordpress.com for future publications.

Ricardo Vidana is 30-year-old writer and photographer. He lives and works in Long Beach California and is attending Long Beach City College. He has been a photographer and writer for over 10 years now and both his poetry and photographs have been published online and in various small press publications. He has two self-published chapbooks: A Whiskey Séance to Communicate with the Dead or Dying and A Trunk Full of Wallpaper, both of which can be ordered through him. His contact information is vidana_15@hotmail.com facebook: facebook.com/TheArtistAndMe

Robert Hoffman splits his time between Lakewood and the Salton Sea, California. He received a dual concentration MFA from the Northwest Institute of Literary Art in Fiction and Poetry, as well as having assistant editing duties with Soundings magazine and webmaster for the student website. Bob is the creator of the “15 Series” chapbook poems, which currently includes 15 Salton Sea Poems and a Lament, and 15 Shady Poems and a Love Sonnet, and the soon to be released, 15 Paramour Poems and the Backdoor. The “15 Shady Poems” Facebook page boasts over 12,000 followers to his nearly daily postings. He’s also published with Sharkreef.org and Cordite Review.

Robin Dawn Hudechek has an MFA in creative writing, poetry from UCI. Her poems have appeared in Caliban, Cream City Review, Chiron Review, Poemeleon, The Hummingbird Review, Cadence Collective, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, Verse-Virtual and elsewhere. She has two chapbooks: Ghost Walk, (the Inevitable Press, 1997) and Ice Angels, published in IDES: A Collection of Poetry Chapbooks (Silver Birch Press, October, 2015). Robin lives in Laguna Beach with her husband, Manny and two beautiful cats.

Robin Steere Axworthy is a native Californian who wandered off in search of adventure for many years before landing in Southern California in 1983 to marry a musician. She has been writing since childhood among the interstices of growing up, jobs, marriage, child rearing, teaching, and dancing. She is currently working on poetry and some fiction. She plans to spend more time on both now that she has retired from full-time teaching

Rose Mary Neff, born and raised in Southern California, is a self-taught artist inspired by the people and world around her, always believing we are all both the artist, and the artwork. She has featured with Encinitas First Friday Megaphone First Thursdays, and Expressions of Spirituality, Centro cultural de la raza, as well as cover artist for Like a Girl: Perspectives on Feminine Identity, Lucid Moose Lit.

Sarah Lim began taking photographs in 2011 with a hand me down first generation iPhone. Her early work was mostly food, as she is also a Farm to Table Chef. She became passionate about photography and began to explore other subjects such as flowers, people, and most recently, the local music, poetry, and art scene in Long Beach and LA. Sarah seeks to capture moments of beauty, clarity, and most of all, love, in her work. Follow her photography, SOL Shots on Facebook and on Instagram: @slimhappy65.

Sharon Elliott has been a poet activist especially in multicultural women’s issues over several decades beginning in the anti-war and civil rights movements in the 1960s and 70s, and four years in the Peace Corps in Nicaragua and Ecuador. She is a Moderator of Poets Responding to SB1070. Her work has appeared in her book Jaguar Unfinished and in several other publications. Her poem “Border Crossing” appears in the anthology: Poetry of Resistance: Voices for Social Justice that received the 2016 Arizona/New Mexico book award.

Stephanie Barbé Hammer has published fiction, poetry and nonfiction in the Bellevue Literary Review, Pearl, CRATE, Gravel, Bacopa Literary Review, Cafe Irreal, and Hayden’s Ferry Review among other places. She is the author of three scholarly books as well as a prose poem chapbook, a poetry collection, and a novel. She is working on a new novel project involving a fan girl, a right-to-life activist, three suicides, and a sailor. She is also writing about being a New Yorker who tries to deal with nature. She lives in Coupeville, WA but escapes to Los Angeles as often as she can.

Steven Hendrix received his BA in Comparative Literature and his MA in English Literature from California State University, Long Beach. His work has been published in Cadence Collective, Chiron Review, Askew, and others. He is grateful for the people in his life and whatever time he can find to write.

Tami Hattis has a B. A. in Communicative Disorders and Creative Writing from the University of Redlands in California, where she also did her graduate work in Communicative Disorders. Her poetry has been published in The Sand Canyon Review and Ghost Town Literary Magazine. She has performed and participated in writing workshops and readings throughout California and in El Rito, New Mexico. Hattis has also written and performed an autobiographical play titled Staring Back. She has recently ventured into the visual arts by collaborating with her lovebird. She integrates paper that her lovebird shreds into her multimedia collages. See more on her Facebook page: Tamara Hattis Art.

Terri Niccum is a former journalist and special education teacher. She lives in Southern California where she continues to advocate for children with special needs. She was selected as a semi-finalist for the 2014 Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry. Her chapbook, Looking Snow in the Eye, was released in 2015 by Finishing Line Press. Recently, her poems have appeared in Nimrod International Journal; The Poeming Pigeon: Poems About Food; Literary Orphans; Cadence Collective; River Poets Journal; Angel City Review, and Pretty Owl Poetry.

Inspired by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Tiffany Dawn Hasse makes it a point to prolifically articulate her experience of having OCD coupled with a tic disorder, through her words. “I want to make an impact on people respectfully through being a true authentic artisan. I want my poetry to reflect a quick-witted mind of substance, of reckless truth with the human experience. I want my art to move people, to allow them to identify with the pain within themselves, so that this pain can be transmuted into their most grandeur asset: Self-empowerment.”

Tony Gloeggler a lifelong resident of NYC and work managing group homes in Brooklyn. My poetry has recently appeared in The Raleigh Review, Rattle, Paterson Literary Review, Nerve Cowboy, and Chiron Review. Until The Last Light Leaves was put out by NYQ Books at the end of 2015 and was a finalist for the 2016 Binghamton University Milt Kessler Poetry Book Award. That same year, Bittersweet Editions published Tony Come Back August, a collaboration with the photographer Marco North.

torrin a. greathouse is a genderqueer, schizophrenic, cripple-punk from Southern California. They are the Editor and Co-Founder of Black Napkin Press. Their work has been published or is forthcoming in Assaracus, Crab Fat Magazine, Heavy Feather Review, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, Polychrome Ink, Rabbit Catastrophe Review, Calamus Journal, Emerge Literary Journal, & The Feminist Wire. torrin’s work was nominated for the Pushcart Prize by Rust + Moth. When they are not writing or editing poetry, they are trying to survive in America long enough to earn a degree.

Valentina Thompson is a student at California State University, Long Beach. Currently studying English, Creative Writing with a minor in Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies, she’s also a queer writer who uses her poetry as a vehicle to share her personal experiences exploring love and intimacy. Her habits include always smiling at strangers, over-consuming hot chocolate, and trying to make herself proud.

Yeggi Kaela Watts has spent 15 years working with children with special needs and has been drawing and writing from an early age. She’s always had a love for art, poetry and music but never had the confidence nor was in a place to pursue it. Only now, after experiencing the greatest joys and pains in life has she been able to pursue her art wholeheartedly. Her hope is to continue sharing her art, poems and songs to connect with people in many walks of life.

Incandescent Mind: Issue Two, Winter 2017 is a full-color, 8.5 x 11″ journal of poetry, prose, and art focused on mental and emotional health. From mental illness, physical ailments, death, and loss, to PTSD, body image issues, family dysfunction, and more, 64 authors and artists share their light on what fuels their internal fires. Edited by Sarah Thursday and with additional editorial support from Raquel Reyes-Lopez, Robin Axworthy, Jeri Thompson, Frank Kearns, Clifton Snider, Terry Wright, and Karie McNeley. Available through Sadie Girl Press Bookstore and MADE by Millworks in Long Beach.

“Incandescent Mind: Issue Two, Winter 2017 explores the beauty and grit of the human psyche and what it takes to deal with adversity, to survive, to sometimes admit defeat, to thrive, to heal. This is a collection of joy, sorrow, confusion, and love, but most importantly it is a collection of life, the persistence to exist, and express brightly in a world that often tries to keep the lights dim.” —Karie McNeley, Editor of Bank Heavy Press

“Here, deftly chronicled in poetry, prose, photography, and art, is a stunningly self-aware exposition of our humanity—our fears and failings, broken places, lost loves. Memory and regret. Fragility, and the strength that is its counterpoint. How we feel when life crashes into us, opens its mouth and swallows our dreams. The things we cannot bear, but do. There is commonality and comfort in these pages, the universal balm of shared experience. Hold their insights like a mirror to your life. Open them and find light breaking through.” —Ricki Mandeville

“There is beauty in strength, in fragility, in having the courage to face one’s darkest fears and speak them aloud. Even as thoughts plague us, we construct a paper-thin veneer of normalcy that occasionally catches fire when the mind, furiously incandescent, burns too brightly. Those of us who have felt those flames, those who have fanned or ignited them, realize how precious it is when everything burns away, leaving nothing but truth. This second volume of Incandescent Mind fuses art with words which, together, burn more brightly.” —Sander Roscoe Wolff, Author of Musings of a Dunderhead

Incandescent Mind: Issue One, Summer 2016 is a full-color, 8.5 x 11″ journal of poetry, prose, and art focused on mental and emotional health. From mental illness, physical ailments, death, and loss, to PTSD, body image issues, family dysfunction, and more, 48 authors and 23 artists share their light on what fuels their internal fires. Edited by Sarah Thursday and co-edited by Raquel Reyes-Lopez, with additional support from Robin Axworthy, Jeri Thompson, Frank Kearns, Clifton Snider, and Keri McNeley. Available through Sadie Girl Press Bookstore and MADE by Millworks in Long Beach.